The meeting held Friday in Montreal between the Minister of Transport and Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault, and the mayors of the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM) did not make it possible to resolve the thorny issue of financing public transport in the metropolis , but the elected officials showed a certain optimism at the end of the discussions.
According to the information obtained, the discussions focused on government aid of 200 million for 2025, an amount which had been mentioned at the beginning of May, as well as on optimization efforts on the part of transport companies, including one possible merger of operators in the territory of the metropolitan region.
Minister Guilbault described the meeting as “very constructive”. “I always said that we would be there again this year and for the next two or three years. And it is always the objective to resolve this before the summer to avoid the end-of-year psychodrama when they have to close their budgets,” she commented at the end of the meeting. “We were all on the same wavelength. We had proposals. We’re going to have discussions again. But I am very confident that we will have an agreement on the next few years before the summer. »
For her part, the mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, praised the openness demonstrated by the minister and argued that several avenues for optimization would be explored by cities and transport companies over the coming weeks. “We are really ready to turn over all the stones to see which scenario would allow us to have the most efficient public transportation system possible,” she said.
The elected official, however, showed concern about the 2025 budget. “It will impose important choices on municipalities. »
Remember that the Regional Metropolitan Transport Authority, which oversees all transport organizations in the greater Montreal region, had estimated the shortfall of transport companies at $561 million for 2025. Public transport in Quebec is plunged into a major crisis due to declining ridership attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising costs.
The mayors of the metropolitan region do not wish to relive the scenario of fall 2023, when at the dawn of the submission of their cities’ budgets, transport companies were grappling with shortfalls which raised fears of significant service reductions.